STRATIGRAPHIC POSITION OF JUDITH RIVER FORMATION § 535 
cussing the Belly River formation, refers to the identity or close 
resemblance between the Belly River beds and the fresh-water 
Laramie [Lance] (which included at that time the Judith River 
beds) and suggests the gradual coming-in of the Belly River series 
between the Colorado and Montana, and the gradual thinning- 
out of the Montana until the Laramie [Lance] occurs, resting imme- 
diately upon the Belly River, the two blending, with the Montana 
absent. He says, however: “It is true that no observation has yet 
been made of a complete thinning-out of the Belly River formation 
in any direction, nor of its blending with the Laramie [Lance] by 
the absence or by the thinning-out of the Montana formation.’ 
Dr. White? recognized the fact that both the Belly River series 
and the Laramie [which as he used it included the Lance and the 
Judith River beds] rest upon marine Cretaceous and says also: 
“Unlike the Laramie [Lance], the Belly River formation is imme- 
diately overlain, as well as underlain by marine Cretaceous strata.” 
The latter he says are undoubtedly referable to the Montana 
formation. He says further:’ ‘‘What gives this formation [Belly 
River] especial interest is the intimate relation of its fauna and 
flora to those of the Laramie [Lance], although these two non- 
marine formations are, in the district within which both are now 
known to occur, separated by a great thickness of strata which 
are unmistakably of marine origin.’’ Although Sir J. W. Daw- 
son‘ has stated that the flora of the Belly River series very closely 
resembles that of the Lower Laramie [Lance} we shall see later on 
that such resemblance as exists is not very striking. In regard to 
the survival of the molluscan fauna he concludes that “the fresh- 
water habitat of the Belly River molluscan fauna was shifted by 
subsidence and gradual filling of aqueous areas.” 
In 1894 Dr. Stanton spent a few days with Mr. W. H. Weed near the 
mouth of Judith River. They traveled by rowboat down the Missouri River 
from Fort Benton to Judith, passing over and studying the formations under- 
lying the Judith River beds, beginning with Fort Benton shales. Dr. Stanton 
confirmed the statements of previous observers that some of the strata beneath 
the Judith River beds contain a fauna that is elsewhere characteristic of the 
t Bull. U.S. Geol. Surv., No. 257, p. 176. 2 Tbid., p. 174. 300. cit., P. 175: 
4 Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, III, sec. IV (1885), p. 20. 
